CELL should gap tomorrow, phone business still going. MOT did great.
Motorola 1st-Qtr Rises 20%, Chips, Phones Recover (Update1)
Bloomberg News
April 13, 1999, 3:24 p.m. PT
Motorola 1st-Qtr Rises 20%, Chips, Phones Recover (Update1)
(Adds details, company quote.)
Schaumburg, Illinois, April 13 (Bloomberg) -- Motorola Inc.,
the world's No. 2 maker of cellular phones, said first-quarter
profit rose 20 percent, beating expectations, helped by cost cuts
and improved sales of new mobile phones and semiconductors.
Profit from operations rose to $171 million, or 28 cents a
share, from $142 million, or 23 cents, in the year-earlier
period. The company was expected to earn 24 cents, the average
estimate of analysts surveyed by First Call Corp. Sales climbed 5
percent to $7.23 billion from $6.89 billion.
Motorola, also the No. 3 computer-chip maker, got a boost
from demand for new versions of its StarTAC mobile phones. The
semiconductor division was profitable for the first time in five
quarters. Motorola expects the improvements to continue this
quarter, helping the company top sales and earnings forecasts.
''Their restructuring is ahead of plan and semiconductors
and cellular are doing better than expected,'' said Mona Eraiba,
a Gruntal & Co. analyst, who rates Motorola a ''strong buy.''
Schaumburg, Illinois-based Motorola rose 1 3/8 to 83 15/16
before the earnings report. Shares have gained about 36 percent
this year and are approaching a record 89 15/16 set in July 1997.
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